


Summer Storms

by Sarixa



Series: Rain Spirit AU [1]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M, Rain Spirit Demyx, Violinist Zexion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-09
Updated: 2016-06-09
Packaged: 2018-07-14 08:55:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7164275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sarixa/pseuds/Sarixa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The rain loved music. Zexion's mother would tell him stories about the rain spirit when he was young and he took up the violin in hopes of someday meeting this benevolent spirit. As the years passed and his music died, Zexion forgot about the rain spirit. That is, until he picked up his old violin to play once more.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Summer Storms

**Author's Note:**

> Written back in 2014 on a particularly stormy summer day, but now that I finally have an AO3, I'm posting it here. Dedicated to Koto.

As a boy, Zexion had been fascinated by the rain. His mother always told him stories of the nature spirits and all the good they brought to the earth. During one particularly bad thunderstorm when Zexion was just 5 years old, he ran to his parents’ room, seeking his mother’s comfort. The woman took him into her lap and told him tales of the rain spirit while she ran her fingers through his hair.

The rain spirit had smooth, soft skin, the color of pale turquoise, a pattern of sapphire crystals winding up his arms, legs, and chest. His face had fairy-like features, offset by the styled blond hair that framed his profile and the set of insect-like feelers sprouting from his forehead. On his back was a set of vines, patterned like a tattoo on his skin. He had five long tails made of water, set at the base of his spine, that protected him and gave him speed.

The rain spirit cleansed the earth, brought life to all plants, and washed away all the bad that lingered in the air. He liked music, Zexion’s mother told him. Music brought comfort and purity. The rain was best when there was music in the air.

When his mother tucked him back into bed and left the room, Zexion rushed out of bed to move the small radio from his bedside table to the windowsill. The rain liked music. It couldn’t be so scary then. Zexion unlatched the window and pushed it open a crack before turning on his radio. Finding the classical music station, he left it playing as he crawled back into bed, easily falling asleep. That night he dreamed of a boy with eyes the color of the sea, hair the color of the shore, and a smile bright as the sun during an odd summer storm.

From then on, whenever it rained, night or day, Zexion would open a window and leave the radio playing for the rain spirit to hear. The same boy would sometimes appear in his dreams. When he was a few years older, Zexion took up the violin, wanting to play his own music for the rain. "Music is purer when it comes from your own hands, from within yourself," his mother had told him once. Zexion mastered the instrument and played by the open window whenever it rained.

Zexion was in his final year of high school when his mother passed away. The rain poured down in buckets that day and for the first time since he was 5, Zexion sat in silence as it poured outside. He did not play the violin again.

He’d long ago learned what the rain truly was and where it came from. Yet a small, childish part of him had still believed in the rain spirit, until his mother’s death.

After graduating, Zexion couldn’t stand the silence of his home anymore. He went off to college, taking the books he loved to read, but leaving behind his beloved violin. Years later he received his degree and moved outside the city.

One day, his father called and told Zexion he was selling the house. Zexion was to stop by and pick up his things. When he did a few days later, it was raining.

As he separated his things into various boxes, he came across his old violin. Memories of his mother washed over him as his fingers ran over the leather case. The rain outside continued to pour. Unzipping the case, he glanced at the polished, abandoned instrument inside. It had been years since he played. Would he still know how? Almost reverently, Zexion picked up the instrument, marveling at the feel of it in his hands again. Taking hold of the bow, he placed his chin on the chin rest and gave an experimental draw of the bow over the strings. He barely noticed when the rain outside seemed to still for a moment. With another draw of his bow, the rain continued to fall.

Zexion lowered his violin with a sigh. The lightning crackled and the thunder roared outside his window. The rain began to fall mercilessly now and Zexion moved to the window to shut it. But the rain was pleading now, urging him to continue. Under its spell, Zexion stepped back from the spray of water coming in through the window and took up his violin once more.

He closed his eyes and began to play, a soft delicate tune he’d once written for his mother.

“You came back.”

Startled, Zexion nearly dropped his violin, catching it before it hit the floor.

“Ah, careful! It’d be a shame if something that made such a beautiful sound were to break.” A young man had appeared at Zexion’s windowsill. How that was possible, when Zexion’s room was on the second floor, he didn’t know.

“Who are you?” There was something familiar about the young man, though Zexion couldn’t quite place it.

“Huh? Ahhh, I’ve been called a lot of different names over the years, in hundreds of languages. Rain and storm are the most common ones. My brothers call me Demyx.” He gave a small shrug and flashed a smile from where he sat on the windowsill. The rain outside began to calm and Zexion was almost sure he’d seen that smile before. “Call me whatever you like!”

“Rain?” Zexion asked, brows furrowing in confusion.

“Yeah, fine by me!” the young man replied, assuming that’s what Zexion would call him. “Can I finally know your name?”

“Finally? I don’t know who you are! In fact, you’re trespassing on private property and if you don’t tell me right now why you’re here, I will call the police.”

The man’s smile faded, eyes clouding over with hurt. “You don’t remember me?”

Zexion set his violin down on his bed, never taking his eyes away from the other’s. “As far as I can recall, we’ve never met.”

“You used to play for me… all the time.” The voice was sad and the rain behind the man began to fall harder.

“Rain…” Zexion’s eyes narrowed, disbelief etched across his face. “You can’t possibly be…”

The man’s eyes lit up, those eyes as blue and green as the sea. He climbed into the room but moved no closer. Outside, the sun shone through the rain clouds - one of those strange summer storms. “Do you remember me now?”

“It’s not possible. No, you can’t be who I think you are. You don’t exist!” Zexion closed his eyes and sucked in a breath, sure that he was dreaming or hallucinating or something. The rain spirit wasn’t real, it had just been a story his mother had told him as a boy so he wouldn’t be afraid of thunderstorms. Memories of his mother filled his head, memories he’d tried so hard to forget. “There’s no such thing as a rain spirit!!”

“Hey.” The man was closer now. Deep blue eyes opened to see Demyx standing directly in front of him. “Don’t cry…” Zexion hadn’t even realized he was, but he could feel them now, the telltale trails of wetness down his cheeks. Demyx placed his hands on either side of Zexion’s face, skin cool and soothing. “Is that why you stopped playing? Because you stopped believing in me?”

Suddenly, Zexion felt like he was five years old again, his mother’s stories fresh in his mind. This man was the boy from his dreams. He was real. The rain spirit was real.

“My mother told me stories about you…” Zexion muttered, frozen in the other’s hold. “You look nothing like the stories she told me though.” The supposed rain spirit standing in front of him looked entirely human, nothing like the fantastic creature his mother had described.

Demyx chuckled, resting his forehead against Zexion’s. “This isn’t my true form, but I didn’t want to scare you off. I’d like to meet your mother someday and thank her for telling you about me. It’s been a few decades since I had someone play music for me.”

“…She died 6 years ago.”

Blue-green eyes saddened at the look on Zexion’s face, understanding now. “I’m so sorry…” Demyx leaned in, placing a soft kiss on Zexion’s lips. “I missed your music. Please don’t stop playing.”

Zexion’s lips tingled, heart drumming just a few beats faster in his chest. “…You said your name was Demyx?”

“My brothers call me that.”

“Your brothers?”

“The other spirits. Oh, I should get going now actually!! My brothers are waiting for me!” Demyx pulled away, turning back toward the window.

“Wait!”

“Hm?” Demyx turned back, looking at Zexion expectantly.

Zexion stared back, calm under the other’s gaze. “Will I see you again? I don’t live here anymore, I just came to pick up my things.”

Demyx nodded toward the violin on the bed with a smile. “Wherever you are, just play when the rain falls. I’ll find you.” Turning, he climbed out the window and Zexion ran over in time to see Demyx turn to water and splash into the garden below.

The rain stopped. Zexion looked up as sunlight pushed its way through the few passing clouds. He turned back into his room and placed his violin back into its case before swinging the case over his shoulder. Hours later, when he was finished packing, he said his goodbyes to his father and climbed into his car, violin case placed lovingly in the passenger’s seat.


End file.
